Poll

Business/Economy

There have been several new tenants to open up shop in the Small Business Center recently and mental health counselor Lori Padilla is among them. Padilla is a therapist that specializes in the technique of “psychodrama and action methods.”

Born and raised in Los Alamos, she works on a part-time schedule, splitting time with her full time job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. She has worked for LANL for 31 years. Padilla has been taking clients on an a ppointment-only basis for the past four months.

“I plan to retire from the lab in the next couple of years, so I can work as a therapist full-time,” she said.
Padilla has a bachelor’s degree in organizational psychology, a master’s degree in counseling from the College of Santa Fe and a certificate in psychodrama and action methods from Southwestern College in Santa Fe. She is also licensed LHMC in the state of New Mexico. She received her license in 2012.

“I use techniques from the schools of Psychodrama and Actions Methods, Interpersonal Neurobiology and trauma therapy,” Padilla said. “About 17 years ago, I first participated in a group process where these methods were used.”

With a nice smile, head for business and a professional can-do attitude, Victoria Work is certainly the kind of U-Haul dealer you’d want to help guide you through a stressful move. But she admits she only wears the trademark uniform on occasion.

“My mother always told me to dress like a proper lady,” she said, sitting behind a desk at her new U-Haul store inside the Pueblo Complex in Los Alamos, dressed in a fun yet modest looking skirt, complete with a leather pair of silver toned sandals and a snappy set of earrings.

But don’t let the outside fool you; Work is all business, coming from a family of business people. If you’ve been around these parts for a while, you may remember John Work, her father, who managed White Rock Builders and was also a general contractor.

It’s been a busy past couple of weeks for Work, as she has been busy starting up her U-Haul business here in Los Alamos while at the same time keeping track of what’s going on at her other U-Haul store in Pojoaque, called “Valley-U-Stor-It.”

With her son also in the moving business with a company called “Moving Angels,” the Work family is pretty much a fixture in the moving business. She started the Pojoaque business in October of 1986, and she added the U-Haul side of it in 1996.

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft Corp. is reshuffling its business in an attempt to promote faster innovation and a sharper focus on devices and services. The move by the world's largest software maker comes amid lukewarm response to the latest version of its flagship Windows operating system and a steady decline in demand for PCs as people turn to tablets and other mobile gadgets.

CEO Steve Ballmer said in a memo to employees Thursday that the changes mean the company is "rallying behind a single strategy" and organizing by function. While it has been widely anticipated, it's too early to tell how well the reorganization will help Microsoft compete with more nimble rivals like Apple and Google.

"You don't make massive, sweeping changes like this unless something is wrong," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial, pointing to Wednesday's reports of declining PC shipments around the world.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — For 10 years the International Folk Art Market has brought some of the world's finest artisans from far-flung and often poverty-stricken locales to peddle their wares in the well-heeled, artistic mountain town of Santa Fe.

The show has brought in millions of dollars for the artists, many of whom have gone home to start businesses that employ other mostly impoverished women from developing countries. But it has also helped draw attention to what officials with a new State Department-backed alliance say is one of the largest but most ignored global industries.

"The artisan sector is the second-largest employer in the developing world, after agriculture," said Peggy Clark, co-chair of The Alliance for Artisan Enterprise and vice president of the Aspen Institute. "But it's just not thought of as a driver of economic growth."

To try to change that, the State Department last year launched the alliance in partnership with the Aspen Institute. Members include the folk market, retailers, even giants corporations like Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's health care law, hailed as his most significant legislative achievement, seems to be losing much of its sweep.

On Tuesday, the administration unexpectedly announced a one-year delay, until after the 2014 elections, in a central requirement of the law that medium and large companies provide coverage for their workers or face fines.

Separately, opposition in the states from Republican governors and legislators has steadily undermined a Medicaid expansion that had been expected to provide coverage to some 15 million low-income people.

Tuesday's move — which caught administration allies and adversaries by surprise — sacrificed timely implementation of Obama's signature legislation but might help Democrats politically by blunting an election-year line of attack Republicans were planning to use. The employer requirements are among the most complex parts of the health care law, designed to expand coverage for uninsured Americans.

"We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," Treasury Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur said in a blog post. "We have listened to your feedback and we are taking action."

It is official. The Trinity Site development, with its 100,000–120,000 square-foot Smith’s Marketplace anchor, is moving forward.

“We were informed by Smith’s/Kroger that on the 14th of June they had their capital committee meeting–this was kind of the final hurdle internally for them–and the project was approved by that committee,” Los Alamos County Administrator Harry Burgess said.

The official groundbreaking is set for 2 p.m. July 23. Smith’s originally announced a 1:30 p.m. start time, but has since modified that.

“It’s very exciting to see this project move from the due diligence phase of our lease agreement into the actual agreement itself,” Burgess said.

“It’s the next step that actually makes the agreement real, because up and until we’re through the due diligence phase, there was still the opportunity for the developer, Kroger, to withdraw. Once we progress past this phase, it initiates payments, obligations and other things that were all covered within the basic agreement.”

In a pet friendly town such as Los Alamos, it is comforting to know pet parents can get quality food and supplies without having to go off “the Hill.”

Pet Pangaea owner Cyndi Wells has provided natural, healthy food and supplements for a wide range of animals. The store sells food for not only dogs and cats, but horses, chickens, reptiles, fish, birds, alpacas and much more.

“You name the animal, we got stuff for them,” Wells said.

Wells opened the business in 2008 when Pete’s Pets closed its doors. Her small staff of employees is required to go through a training program for three to four months prior to being hired. The program teaches employees all about pet nutrition.

“Pet nutrition is crucial to its health and well-being,” Wells said. “My supplies are based on what the community needs.” Her business motto is “Just do the right thing and the business will follow.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for Twinkies when they return to shelves next month.

The company that went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionized workers last year is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15.

Based on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its demise, Hostess is expecting a blockbuster return next month for Twinkies and other sugary treats, such as CupCakes and Donettes. The company says the cakes will taste the same but that the boxes will now bear the tag line "The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever."

"A lot of impostor products have come to the market while Hostess has been off the shelves," says Daren Metropoulos, a principal of the investment firm Metropoulos & Co., which teamed up with Apollo Global Management to buy a variety of Hostess snacks.